Category: Garden

Yesterday was a non-raining day, so we took Ruby’s raised garden bed down to her place, then filled the trailer with a scoop of topsoil on our way home.

Oh my! Not thinking about the weight of sodden wet soil – you know, since its been raining! 😀

So while Jeff got to ride his fun mower, I got to sort out my raised garden bed.

I hit a slight snag – access to the vegie patch via wheelbarrow doesn’t work… gates too small and we wired up the bottom one anyway because I didn’t think I needed it, to stop chickens getting in!

So, after hauling 5 or 6 buckets of sodden soil down the yard and over a fence, I got a bit over it. So at least I had taken a bit of pressure off the tyres, and drove the car down the back and did some masterful maneuvering between the plum trees to get the trailer closer to my garden bed.

While I was happy to see the garden bed full, I was equally happy to see the trailer empty.

Now I have to decide what to put in it!

And check out my little heirloom tomatoes!

I am also excited to see flowers appearing on the tomatoes that are in the hothouse!

I think I need to get a small punnet of tomatoes to just get some in the outside garden going now as well.

The raspberries are slowly coming along and greening up. Really itching to get in here to weed & feed & mulch!

If anyone was wondering how much space we use for our vegetable garden, we actually got out the tape measure to see.

The main patch is 30ft X 38ft (9X11mt)
The raspberry patch is two rows of canes of 20ft each (6mt)
The new space in the ‘duck yard’ is going to be approx 24ft x 20ft (7X6mt)
We also have the separate raised garden bed behind the hothouse, the strawberry patch, the herb garden and of course the hothouse!

Should keep us fed!

Pretty things are slowly appearing everywhere!

Rain is back tomorrow, but I guess I can put the fire on and finish Ruby’s party photos and take it easy! I helped out a friend on her market stall today – she had fresh scones and cakes!

I earned myself $20 & 13 scones! lol. That takes my Texas Fund up to $130.20!! Don’t think the scones will help though! 😀

Have a fabulous weekend everyone!

Today I have been as happy as a little pig in a muddy puddle! Mother Nature took a break from being a maniac, and the rain ceased for most of the day! So on went the gardening clothes and we dived right in!

My goal was to (apart from weed like mad) get my new raised garden bed placed where I wanted it

I took a short break to play with the chickens… they follow me like little lambs, so I did a few laps of the yard with them hot on my heels.

Back to work!

And what treasures did we dig up today? Apart from a small broken bottle, there was this weird hard ball…

Plenty of fat worms

And best of all a 1980 twenty cent piece!! Score!

And since yesterday my little tomato has shot up and even better, was joined by about 20 of its mates! 🙂 Gotta be happy about that!

It was a great day, a really good feeling to have made significant progress!

Enjoy your day too!

Cheers!

PS Occasional extras on my Facebook page!

 

Finally a bit of garden excitement despite the continual dreariness of the weather! My first tomato seed has started to unfold! Its so tiny!!

I have mentioned before my very bad track record with starting tomatoes from seed – so I am full of hope today! These seeds are an heirloom variety – beefsteak- given to my by my sister Michelle.

I got a funny message from my other sister, Rosemary today stating “I think I need to be paying a fee to be related to you”

Puzzling, but I immediately asked how much?? 🙂

Turns out Rosemary is taking Emma over to Japan for Christmas (big sister envy) and she emailed a guesthouse in Osaka to make a booking. They actually weren’t taking booking yet for that time however “you’re the sister of Lisa from Tasmania aren’t you”? And reserved them a room even though their books aren’t open yet!!

That made me laugh. I must have made an impression!! 🙂

Anyway – back to the rain and gloom of Tassie! The forecast drops back to ‘cloudy’ for a few days then back to ‘Insane-Build-An-Ark’ weather

Still… our new manferns are loving it

I made a recent discovery on how useful a pump bottle was to water seedlings!! I am a bit of a fan now! My watering can is not so good for watering little seedlings – its apt to come out in a deluge (and lets face it – I am rather over deluges!!) and wash away all the seeds or upset them!  I tried a spray bottle, but at the risk of sounding lame, it was just hard work and made my hand hurt! (wah wah).  Anyway, these bottles are fabulous… the nozzle keeps the water in check and they are easy to squeeze to sprinkle what water I need into each pot.

Hope everyone is staying drier than we are!

Cheers!

Despite the on & off again rain, we got into this plot to make a start on weeding (again)(sigh)

Jeff was a bit annoyed as he wanted to finish the main garden. I just wanted a change of scenery!

Plus the chickens had the BEST day! 😀

I think they must have been full to popping!

Actually – this one did accidentally ‘pop’

Oopsie – that top will need a bit of a wash!! Sorry darling niece!! 😀

Hopefully we will get some weather breaks this week to really finish off clearing our plots out!

Early night for me – we are up early tomorrow to take Emma back to the airport. The week has gone too quickly!

Cheers!

G’day… Guess what? Its still raining! A lot.

We did at least get out of the house today and took a drive to Stanley to see a lady who owns our favourite shop there  – Sticks, Stones, Shells & Bones. So you can imagine we are in heaven in there! So many amazing shells, fossils & that kind of thing from all over the world.

I have become friends with Cassie, the owner, as I always visit, take guests and generally lurk about her shop when we are up that way.

Later in the afternoon, Emma and I went down to Ruby’s for an afternoon tea with Margie and my other two cousins, Ann and Fiona. It was a great afternoon – filled with stories, laughs and sponge cake!!

Anyway, I did do a bit of a soggy walk around the garden with my camera. I am dying for spring to really take hold – looking for anything with colour or potential! Soon it will be pretty fabulous, but I hate waiting!

I hope your day was equally fun and colourful!

Cheers!

The rain that had been forecast all week, suddenly came on in a pretty huge downpour – that went on all day!

Pretty much no point trying to do anything outside – it was time for a bit of a rest anyway. Is it a bad thing to spend most of the day inside playing the X-Box with your teenage niece?? 😀 We had fun anyway!

We had a lot of wind, so I did spend a little time outside putting all the containers back on the lettuce seedlings, checked on the soggy chickens and watered some things in the hothouse

I find things look pretty in the rain…

And really, that’s all the new news from Norwich House! Apparently there is a lot more rain on the way, so I am glad we got in and did what we could in the garden while the days were nice! Now to sit tight and wait for the sun to return!

Cheers!

 

Hello!!

Happy mid-week to everyone!

Despite the doom & gloom forecasts, we have had really great weather so far this week – although as I type there is some wild wind out there, so we may be back to cold and wet tomorrow.

Yesterday we finished off the fence (ok – Jeff finished off the fence) and it seemed pretty chicken-proof, so I decided it was time to plant out some of those lovely little cos lettuce seedlings.

Thats not even half of what I had grown! These were from the seed I collected last season, so I am pretty chuffed with their performance!

I used some coffee grounds to surround the snow peas and hopefully deter any hungry slugs/snails

What are we still eating from the garden in the ‘lean times’ ? Lots of broccoli, still a few carrots left, celery and various herbs! Oh – and chillies!

I found another box of potatoes in the shed… made me laugh, although I did salvage a few!

Tonight I agonised through peeling a ridiculous number of tiny potatoes to get the amount I wanted, as I refuse to buy the outrageously priced potatoes in the supermarket. Getting what I can out of the last ones we grew!

This is taking frugal-ness to a special level…

Anyway, today Emma and I wandered back to Ruby’s to sort out another garden plot.

I swear, next winter I am going to bury every non-working garden plot both at Ruby’s and our place in seaweed grass. It acted as a fabulous weed suppressant! The difference between what we had to dig up today, and the other day where there was no seaweed was phenomenal!

The lettuce covered for a while as they take hold, the silverbeet (in the shade) should be fine as they came out of an outside garden plot.

I dug up the middle as that is where the new tomato plants are going to go. (I bet they will be in before I get back too!)

Ruby has been busy since we were there the other day – she planted beetroot in the plot we dug.

She also weeded the strawberry patch – although Margie and I think we will organise getting a raised bed for her for these this season – and she also went mad weeding under the lemon tree!!

We even fitted in another wander down at Fossil Bluff this afternoon!! It was gorgeous soaking up the sun (and picking up an agate or three…)

Cheers!

The forecast was for rain.

This is what we got!! Super day!

Emma and I did some work at Ruby’s, but will save that story for tomorrow.

We had to empty the trailer of Ruby’s Birthday Compost, so we could get down to the beach and load up on seaweed grass (Best Aunty – taking her niece to the beach – haha)

We finally got home around 2pm where we had a pretty late lunch.

Emma had a school project to work on, so came in for a shower and a quiet afternoon, whereas I dragged poor Jeff back to our garden to do a little fence rearranging!

The bottom garden I added on a couple of seasons ago, and really – the middle fence is not actually helping anyone or anything. So we pulled it out – keeping in tact as much of the cabling etc so we can reuse in other areas.

We also had to redo the bottom fence since the chickens kept coming and going as they pleased… and I can’t plant anything  much until it is all properly chook-proof!

Wow – there was some effort to get out the stakes!!

Its really opened this area, and I reckon I will be able to make better use and access the whole garden more easily. (and yes – I need to do a LOT more weeding!)

Late in the day I finally got around to getting a few bags out of the trailer and mulching my garlic!

I was pretty excited to see my snow peas have started to pop up!!

And last, not least, my very first rhododendron flower has come out! This tree was transplanted from Ruby’s place a couple of years ago, and hasn’t flourished – due to lack of TLC on my part and scant water.  Looks like I might get a few flowers this season! How nice!

Hope everyone had a fabulous day!

Cheers!!

Today I had to trot down into the dentist to get a tooth re-filled. The old filling had been slowly disintegrating and something needed to be done. I put it off long enough, got brave and made an appointment.

I actually haven’t been to see a dentist for probably over 15 years. I am a great believer in, if its not broken, don’t fix it.  I am sure MANY of you may have a come-back with, Prevention Best Cure etc…. 🙂

Anyway – I wasn’t nervous until I had to wait in the waiting room for 5 minutes, then I am sure my heart rate went up a little (although I was trying to be sensible.)

Both the dentist and the dental nurse were fabulous, and its the most enjoyable dentist-trip I have experienced!! They were very patient and kind, and we spent a good amount of time talking about gardens!! That totally relaxed me! 😀

The dentist was actually rather impressed with my teeth despite my absence from dental chairs for so long! (Whew)

Once our funds are looking a little more flush I suspect I will go back in for a proper checkup now that I know they are not terrifying people!!

So – with half my face happily numb, I came home and attended to the strawberry patch, which was in need of weeding. A lot of fiddly little tiny weeds have popped up everywhere

In other random happenings, I scored a couple of bags of bulbs. That is, we got home yesterday and they were in the car port! (I suspect Shirely dropped them off as she was talking about her gardener pulling them all up)

And as I was headed into the dentists office, a friend bailed me up on the street wanting to know where my car was – they had a couple of bags of bush ferns for me, so came back to my car where I found them underneath!!

Of all the most recent seed plantings, only a sunflower sprout has shown its face! I guess it is a little early to be disappointed. Patience!!

The chillies are doing pretty well…

And that hanging plant IS an orchid – just a tiny one!

I also spotted my first cherry plum today! A baby just starting!

Our front garden has really greened up! Soon we will be enjoying iris, lilium & granny bonnet!

And finally – our cherry blossom is covered in buds. I think its a couple of weeks yet before they burst forth though…

Have a fabulous weekend everyone!

Time for me to take a couple more painkillers (although things aren’t too bad) and head to bed! Here’s hoping our great weather keeps up a bit longer! I have grand garden plans for tomorrow!

Cheers!